Mr. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan was born on 12th June, 1932 in Palghat District of Kerala. After early education in his native place, he joined Victoria College, Palghat and later graduated from Government Engineering College, Kakinada in 1953. He had a small stinct as lecturer in Civil Engineering in Kerala Polytechnic, Calicut.
Upon selection to the Indian Railway Services of Engineers, he joined Southern Railway as Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954. This was the starting point of a distinguished career in Government service. During the early phase of his career, Mr. Sreedharan was in-charge of new line constructions such as Quilon-Ernakulam metre gauge line, Mangalore-Hassan railway line.
He was given the Railway Minister-s award for restoring the Pamban Railway Bridge in 46 days, a major portion of this bridge was washed away in a tidal wave in 1963.
As Dy. Chief Engineer, Mr. Sreedharan was in-charge Investigation, Planning and Design of the first ever metro in the country viz at Calcutta from 1970 to 1975. There has been another first to his credit. It was during his tenure as Chairman and Managing Director of the country’s premier shipyard at Cochin that the first ship built by this shipyard, RANI PADMINI was launched. He was General Manager, Western railway during 1987-89 and was elevated to the post of Member Engineering, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India.
On retirement from Indian Railway in June 1990 he headed the country’s biggest railway project namely Konkan Railway as its Chairman and Managing Director. This was the first major project undertaken in the country on Build, Operate and Transfer basis. This line, over a length of 760 kms involving 93 tunnels over a total length of 83 kms and 171 major bridges, was completed in a record time of seven years which included the investigation and planning period as well.
After completion of the Konkan Railway project, the government made him in-charge of the prestigious Delhi Metro Project which he is now heading as its Managing Director. The first phase of the project covering three lines over a total length of about 70.0 kms is expected to be fully commissioned by December, 2005. Already Line 1 for a length of 23 kms and Line 2, which is fully underground, for a length of 11 kms are operational. He was able to commission all the sections on the target dates and sometimes well before the target dates and always within the budget.
Mr. Sreedharan is a recipient of many prestigious awards from the government and professional bodies in India including the national award of Padma Shri in 2001. He was adjudged as the Man of the Year by the Times of India for the year 2002. The Time Magazine chose him as one of the Asian Heroes in 2003. He is also the recipient of Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award for the year 2002 for professional excellence engineering.
Mr. E. Sreedharan is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K., the Chartered Institute of Transport, U.K., the Institute of Railway Transport, India, & the National Academy of Engineering, India.
If anyone can pull off this daunting $4.25 billion project (Delhi Metro) it is a man whose humble serenity is not incidental; he wakes well before dawn every day to meditate and read the Bhagavad Gita, does yoga each morning and walks for at least 45 minutes in the evening.
In India hardly anyone escapes scathing criticism, especially bombastic politicians and corrupt bureaucrats. But Sreedharan is unusual. He has kept to the public sector, spurning various private entreaties. A plaque in his office quotes from the Indian scripture Yog Vashisht: "Work I do; not that 'I' do it."
Sreedharan accomplishes the "simple arithmetic" of timely completion by divvying up work among half a dozen project managers who are tasked with their own deadlines. Sreedharan reviews daily progress reports and meets weekly with top staff and consultants. "Each [project chief] will finish his work on time," he insists.
Truly amazing guy!
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